DESI-RAE YOUNG NAMED MID-MAJOR PLAYER OF THE YEAR SEMIFINALIST
Young is the one of two Mountain West players on the list
UNLV women’s basketball senior center Desi-Rae Young is one of 10 semifinalists for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award presented by Her Hoops Stats, the organization announced today.
The Las Vegas native the leading-scorer for the Rebels averaging nearly a double-double of 19.4 points per game and 9.4 rebounds per game and has been named MW Player of the Week three times this season. She reached the 100th career game and start mark in a Lady Rebels’ uniform and has hit the 1,500-career point milestone. She is the third leading scorer of all-time in a Lady Rebels uniform with 1,841 career points and continuing to climb the ranks. Young currently has 989 career rebounds, which ranks fourth on the Lady Rebels all-time list.
In the national rankings, Young is 29th in points per game, 30th in field goal percentage (.559), tied 32nd in double-doubles with 10 and 42nd in rebounds per game. In MW play, Young leads the league in rebound per game (10.0), and ranks second in scoring (21.0) and field goal percentage (.594).
Young is joined as a semifinalist by Colorado State’s McKenna Hofschild, Arkansas State’s Izzy Higginbottom, Columbia’s Abbey Hsu, Drake’s Katie Dinnebier, Fairfield’s Meghan Anderson, Florida Gulf Coast’s Emani Jefferson, Gonzaga’s Yvonne Ejim, Norfolk State’s Diamond Johnson and Wofford’s Rachael Rose.
This year’s semifinalists includes representatives from 10 teams and nine conferences. The Mountain West is the lone conference with two semifinalists, marking the sixth time a conference has placed multiple players on the same semifinalist list. The MW is also the only conference to play multiple players on the semifinalist list twice. Young is one of four players to become a two-time semi finalist; she was named to the 15-player midseason watch list in January.
To be eligible for this award, players must compete in one of the 26 conferences deemed to be “mid-major.” The following conferences are considered high-major for the purposes of this award, and thus ineligible: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC. In October, the 25-player preseason watch list was announced, and the 15 members of the midseason watch list were announced in January. The five finalists will be announced in early March. The winner will be announced around the Final Four. The list is fluid and players may play their way on or off the list over the course of the season.